The West Yorkshire Playhouse (WYP) is a producing theatre that creates shows for both in-house production and national touring, and also collaborates with other major regional theatres. A number of shows have transferred from the theatre’s home in central Leeds to the West End from, the most recent being Loserville, which premiered at London’s Garrick Theatre in October 2012.
The Playhouse also provides one of the UK’s most comprehensive arts education programmes, working with schools and young people in addition to offering a range of initiatives for adults and community groups. It is also a significant local employer with in excess of 200 staff representing every working discipline necessary to operate a contemporary theatre.
The WYP houses two performance spaces – the 350-seat Courtyard and the main Quarry theatre, which seats 750. Until recently, the Quarry was equipped with a large analogue mixing console, whose use was declining in favour of digital consoles. The WYP had previously hired DiGiCo SD8 consoles for its 2009 and 2010 Christmas programmes, and this experience in tandem with an ongoing relationship with Autograph Sales & Installations has seen the facility upgrade its installed mixing console systems.
As the DiGiCo SD8s did not provide enough inputs overall, the WYP hired a DiGiCo SD10 from Autograph for its 2011 production of Annie, designed by Sebastian Frost. The same FOH set-up remained in place for the next show, giving the house technical team the ideal opportunity to properly evaluate the SD10 in a real-world working environment. The desk proved itself up to the many and various demands likely to made of it in a busy theatre, and Autograph was requested to supply and commission a new SD10 to the Playhouse during a short ‘dark’ period. The new console was first used on Loserville in Leeds, prior to transfer of the production to the West End.
The equipment supplied includes a DiGiCo SD10 control surface plus two SD Racks, eight 8-input cards and four 8-output cards, giving a system total of 64 mic/line inputs and 32 multi-purpose outputs which can be used in any configuration between the two racks as required by individual projects. This combination of inputs and outputs will handle the majority of shows produced at the Playhouse, but there is spare capacity within the SD Racks allowing the system to be expanded if necessary.
The SD10 system also includes a pair of ADAT cards to allow simple connection to the Playhouse’s QLab show control system and playback media, as well as two AES input/output cards providing digital connection to the in-house Yamaha DME64. On initial installation the racks are connected to the SD10 via copper Madi links, but those will in the future be replaced by fibre-optic cables using the integrated Optocore system.
‘Although we have experience with some DiGiCo consoles through previous hires this is our first foray into digital ownership, and thanks to Autograph the transition has been almost painless, says Martin Pickersgill, Head of Sound for the Playhouse. ‘Having an SD10 here for Annie convinced us that it was the way to go and I’m happy that we made a good decision’. He continued, ‘The update that Chris from Autograph installed for us recently has extended the functionality still further and our current show [The Wind In The Willows, designed by Mic Pool] will be the most comprehensive test for the SD10 yet, one I’m sure it will pass with ease’.
